County approves slimmer budget

Albemarle supervisors voted Wednesday to keep the real-estate tax rate unchanged, approving a $292.2 million budget that is $11.9 million less than this fiscal year.

The 2010 tax rate of 74.2 cents per $100 of assessed value will mean the average household pays about $90 less in real-estate taxes than in 2009 because assessed home values have declined.

“I think we stood firm in a period of recession when we shouldn’t raise taxes,” Supervisor Lindsay G. Dorrier Jr. said.

Dorrier is a fiscally conservative Democrat who teamed with three Republicans on the Board of Supervisors — Kenneth C. Boyd, Rodney S. Thomas and Duane Snow — to keep the rate unchanged.

The conservative coalition has faced opposition from the board’s Democratic chairwoman, Ann H. Mallek, and independent Dennis S. Rooker. Both wanted a tax rate of more than 76 cents, somewhere closer to what’s called the “equalized rate” at which the average homeowner would pay about the same taxes this year as last.

In addition to more funding for schools, Mallek and Rooker said the money from a higher tax rate could have been used for capital improvements projects or rainy day funds.

The conservative supervisors have also faced calls for a higher tax rate from the School Board, which is planning $6.1 million in cuts to account for revenue declines. Those cuts include 22 teachers, two principals, more than a dozen bus drivers, administrative staff and others.

Parents and other residents have demanded supervisors provide more schools funding — though those voices were loudest when school heads projected an $8.8 million funding shortfall, which has since shrunk.

The budget for fiscal 2011 leaves no room for new infrastructure projects and costs the county progress made in recent years toward its goal of having 1.5 police officers per 1,000 residents.

In the general government division, there are 78 positions that officials plan to freeze by the end of the fiscal year, compared with 2007 staffing levels.

Funding will be largely axed for a conservation easements program in which the county pays owners of rural, pristine property to keep their land permanently undeveloped. The funding reductions also mean the county will be slower to provide some services, and county property might not be as well maintained.

Officials say the recession has made them rethink how money is spent. Dollars have been saved, for example, through staffing consolidations, more efficient lighting and water systems in government buildings and less waste of paper and other office materials.

The school division also created a class schedule for students allowing them to take some classes per semester instead of per year. The schedule has teachers instructing more classes each year but fewer at any given time. The new system is expected to save the school division more than $800,000 next academic year by cutting teachers without increasing class sizes, and School Board members agree that the schedule is better for students than the system currently in place.

The School Board was not able to convince the supervisors to increase the tax rate, but School Board members are now asking for a larger portion of county revenues to help cover a shortfall of several hundred thousand dollars in recurring funds.

The School Board is about $460,000 shy of being able to meet its funding request. That number jumps to more like $700,000 if the county were to get rid of a plan — as supervisors and School Board members have vowed — to ax two principals and have two others oversee a total of four schools.

The school division could cover the $700,000 gap itself using $3.4 million in one-time funds that have been offered by the state, but school officials contend that doing so would not be smart. Instead, school leaders proposed setting that $3.4 million aside and dipping into it if the economy worsens and the county ends up with less money than projected. Otherwise, the money would be used for capital projects such as computer and school bus replacement.

The general government division — which manages everything but schools — has about a $1 million “shortfall contingency fund.” The size of the fund, which is essentially a rainy day fund, has jumped about $200,000 recently because the county is now expecting more money from the state than previously anticipated.

The School Board wants the general government division to cover its $700,000 shortfall.

Dorrier asked Wednesday that the county give the School Board about half the general government’s $1 million contingency fund.

“We’ve got rainy day funds, and it’s raining,” Dorrier said.

However, supervisors instead called for a meeting with the School Board to discuss the division’s finances.

Mallek said she’s concerned about the lack of contingency funds that the board has set aside, noting that the county’s revenue intake can change quickly and that the state government has in past years made sudden, drastic changes in funding.

“Our pitiful little contingency fund is not enough to protect us from anything from Richmond,” Mallek said.

With the county’s nearly $300 million budget, Rooker added, being off on revenue projections by 1 percent would mean Albemarle would have to make $3 million in cuts.

“That million-dollar contingency can be gone in a heartbeat,” Rooker said.

The joint meeting with the School Board and Board of Supervisors is expected to happen sometime within the next several weeks, though no date has been set.